Arsene Wenger has admitted that Olivier Giroud’s move to Chelsea was in some ways forced because the club’s desire to bring Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in, and that while he would have preferred him not to go to rival club, there were human element to the decision too.
The French international signed left Arsenal on deadline day for £18.5m, after five and a half years at the Emirates, and his desire to stay in London was a key part of what went down.
Speaking at his press conference today, Wenger explained how the Aubameyang deal happened, and later expanded on Giroud’s role in it all.
“First, I think ideally you want him to go to clubs that do not compete with you,” he said.
“On the other hand, it was a bit linked with the Aubameyang deal as well. He wanted to stay [in London], he’s just had a third baby and it was very difficult on the family side to leave London for him.
“Also, the fact we owe Olivier Giroud a lot. His commitment, his dedication and love for the club was absolutely exceptional.
“It was difficult to turn it down, just because it was an opponent who are a competitive club.”
We can all run through scenarios where this one might come back to haunt us a bit, but we got a lot from Giroud, and now we have a new striking hero (hopefully) in the shape of Aubameyang.
Let’s hope he can hit the ground running, despite fears he might miss out tomorrow because of illness.
Agree with blogs’ conclusion, but still… My head is ok with this but my heart is still breaking a little.
Is little bit errr breaking?
This pic from your own private collection blogs?
Gutted that we’ve sold him and not just for sentimental reasons. We’re really going to miss having a striker from the bench that can change a game – especially in the Europa League with no Auba available.
As much as you hate to see him go to Chelsea I am glad for his sake (like with Cech when he came to us) that he gets to stay in London and not uproot his family. He has been a true professional at Arsenal and was always about the team first so glad Wenger looked out for him. Unfortunately the only we were going to get Aubameyang was to make this move with Giroud. Whether Aubameyang works out or not who knows, but Wenger needed to make changes. Sometimes those changes are easy like shipping out Debuchy or even… Read more »
Prefer Oli and Laca up top for us!
Giroud:(((((((((((((((((((((((((
I know our fans boo a lot of our ex players that move on to rival clubs but I hope our fans don’t boo him. Even if he scores agianst us don’t think he will celebrate for them. Farewell Giroud you handsome sexy French bastard!
I cannot imagine that Giroud would be greeted by anything but his usual song.
It will be insanity to boo at HFB. Even if he score against us, he’s just doing his professional duty. I will sing his name always
Where do you get the 18.5m figure from Blogs? Everywhere else I read it quoted as 17.5m including add ons. Not nit-picking, just curious as to the final figure.
I miss Giroud already. Can’t wait to applaud him when he comes back to the Emirates.
Nice touch there to not put giroud in the arsenal or chelsea colors. I am not complaining 😉
Promote Eddie, he’s been putting in crazy numbers for the reserves and internationally. If Rashford is ready then so is our Eddie, get him involved.
Chelsea just got a lot sexy now
Why didn’t arsenal just loan him for 6 months, even to chelski.. That way he still get his chance for the wc in the summer, at the same time, gives us the chance to see how auba and laza work in the system. If it works well, fine.. Either he accepts being in plan b and fight for his place or he moves. Still gutted tt he left. I love him as a player. Hope in 18 mths time, he will come back and rejoin us. By then who knows, at that age, he will probably accept he will be… Read more »
Perhaps for the obvious reason that Chelsea would not accept it. From their point of view, they were facilitating the deal for Aubameyang, that would make us stronger; why should they bend over backward to help us?
Well the choice for them until the end of the season would have been Giroud, Crouch, or Caroll. They could have been persuaded to take Giroud on loan.
Are they say no and Dortmund then says no then we are stuck lol
They’re not forced to play him as a loan player, but probably will if they’ve shelled out- either way we can bring him back in the summer – before he’s starred in the World Cup!
I hope he comes back. He belongs here, not with those cunts.
You’re assuming we didn’t try, and failed in the process.
Just like Cech to Arsenal i guess. Both still counted as heroes in their former clubs.
Oli is our HFB and will miss him a lot. God bless!
He’s doing pretty well to be playing at this level considering he’s just had a baby
What I don’t get is why so many people are saying it is either or with PEA and Laca!!! Why can’t they both play in the same team? As well as ozil and Miki?
Listening to the pod and seeing a few replies to my comment in another article, I’ve changed my mind on Giroud. I was unhappy he’s at Chelsea but given the.circumstances there can be little put on him. He has been a professional throughout.
Can someone explain the paltry figure we received for him, though? That chokes me too.
they’ll say because he had just another year left on his deal, and perhaps the age of the striker, but considering he’s still first choice for FRANCE (over the bloke we laid out 50m+ for) and his strike rate of nearly 1 in 2, it’s ridiculous.
Cos they knew they’d got us over a barrel if we wanted Aubameyang (which I would rather have kept and played Oli with Laca!)
You know Auba is potentially better then either of them?
When he settles in, yes. Which might take a year. Till then a struggling Lacazette, a 2 goals per season Welbeck and no Giroud to bail us out in the dying minutes.
We really wanted Auba and we had no leverage.
You’re obviously not wrong, but you’re also taking some emotional parting grieving a bit too literally too. It’s ok, we’ll just have to make Auba forget a little more.
Loved HFB. Hated this deal.
2 things – with all of Chelsea’s billions, are we really led to believe this was the only striker they could sign? and I’m pretty sure there are other London based clubs – West Ham, Palace…
What a HFB. Always a Gunner, no matter how many last minute winners he’ll score against us
Sweet mother of Moses he’s handsome!
Poor decision. No consideration given to strategic implications. 1) We lose a player who provides us with a different set of skills to break teams down. 2) We add a player in an area we don’t need reinforcing that is crucially cup tied for the Europa. This is a competition with potential to see us back into the CL. Now if we restrict Lacazette to the bench, how is he going to find form polishing it? And if he gets injured, I will remind you that our only recourse is then Danny Welbeck in the europa. 3) We also strengthen… Read more »
If there is one bright spot to recent acquisitions is hopefully the understanding between Aubameyang and Mhkitaryan. Throw in Ozil into the mix and hopefully we have an explosive powder keg ready to lit. But what goes on behind them is as much the concern. I’m not sure we cannot avoid a back 3 to be more secure at the moment particularly as we may need the fullbacks to provide width. Either that or we can only play one of Aubameyang or Lacazette and have a double act securing midfield in a more discipline fashion. But what that means for… Read more »
http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/42916936 Interesting article about spending spending spending. Still …Leicester managed to squeeze in.:D BUT yes when you look at the options for example for Ozil, it may be that the sway toward us is because there are really only 7 or 8 teams that can out bid us for salary. Barca bought Coutinho so no need for Ozil. Real Madrid won’t take him back. ego bruise. Bayern don’t need him and there is added pressure for him in Germany. PSG are stacked. Pastore still around can hardly squeeze into the team. Juve 50-50 if they can even rival us for… Read more »
I’m really hoping we leverage on BOTH our strikers but sounds like Aubameyang may be under the weather. however there should be no reason to be fixated with two strikers or 1 striker up top, we should have flexibility to play both systems. A lot depends on how we can find the right balance bridging our offensive push with defensive awareness and it all boils down to the idiosyncratic selection we find ourselves with in midfield. I think BC of our options up front, we need fullbacks to provide width in which case it is better to have a back… Read more »
Just have to say my piece. I shed silent tears with HFB departure. The realization that he actually gave us the final gift of making Auba move possible. All things considered, with him and his family situation – even moving to Chelsea seemed acceptable to me now. We miss you already…..Nananana
I feel like he’ll be good for them, Chelsea are good at getting the ball up top with some space, Morata has been struggling with his finishing, if Giroud can be even slightly better at finishing, they’ll do well. Which is scary.
Don’t forget Cech came to us in a very similar manner.